(April 4, 2014) – The City of Portland Bureau of Transportation advises the traveling public that street improvements will require lane closures on W Burnside Street between SW 19th Avenue and SW King Avenue Monday, April 7 through Wednesday, April 9, 7 a.m. through 5 p.m. each day.

The lane closures are necessary to allow crews to pave .33 lane miles. This is the second phase of the two phase process. Crews last month had ground down the old asphalt to prepare for paving during a stretch of dry weather. Paving is weather dependent and the schedule may change.

At least one traffic lane in each direction will remain open at all times. Local access to residences and businesses will be provided.

The public is advised to expect delays while repairs are being made. We ask the public to travel cautiously, observe all lane closures and directions by flaggers, and use alternate routes if possible.

The Bureau of Transportation has provided the following update: Newsletter4 for the Thurman Street Bridge rehabilitation project, now scheduled for April 7th. Waterline relocation work will precede the closure.

The Transportation Committee is reviewing the current City of Portland Transportation Systems Plan (TSP) projects listing for Northwest Portland. Comments, including suggested additions, changes and deletions, will be submitted to the City for consideration in the upcoming update to the TSP. The TSP becomes a part of the Comprehensive Plan, also now being updated. You can view the committee’s working annotated list of projects at : NWDA TSP Improvements .

The Transportation Committee is pleased to announce that a proposed fix for the NW Couch overcrossing of the I-405 freeway, designed in a collaborative City of Portland and ODOT effort, has been funded in the 2015-2018 State Transportation Improvement Program (STIP). The fix will be directed at improving pedestrian and bike safety across what is a functioning freeway on-ramp from West Burnside Street. The project is described in the following preliminary drawings:

The improvements will include curb extensions, squaring off of street corners and reconfiguring NW 16th at the west side of this overcrossing. The estimated cost is $2.3 million. Final plans and a schedule remain to be worked out.

TriMet has been conducting outreach to neighbors and businesses along NW Thurman from 27th Street to the Gordon intersection since June of 2011 regarding the westbound layover location for Line 15 buses. Issues with noise and site distance for cars, bikes and pedestrians at NW 27th where Line 15 buses layover in the morning hours triggered a TriMet safety analysis conducted at the request of the Northwest District Association.

The analysis determined that the current westbound Line 15 layover location at the NW corner of 27th needed additional safety measures. When a TriMet bus was parked during a layover, vehicles crossing NW Thurman at 27th encountered a site distance problem because there was no stop sign on NW Thurman at that intersection.

TriMet worked with the city traffic office to have a four-way stop installed at NW Thurman & 27th Street including signs and pavement markings which alleviated the site distance issue. However, the noise issue remains a challenge because of dense housing located only a few feet from the current westbound layover location.

TriMet conducted additional outreach to neighbors around NW Thurman & 28th and determined that this intersection would be a more amenable location for the morning-only westbound layover location because:

The intersection has an existing four-way stop

No on-street parking removal is required

The closest resident is over 100 feet away compared to 50 feet away at 27th

The business located at the NW corner of 28th has no issues with a layover change

Given the analysis, outreach and a similar safety profile at NW 28th, the westbound layover location will be moved from NW 27th & Thurman to the bus stop located at NW 28th & Thurman (NW corner by Romaine Electric) effective Sunday, September 2, 2012.

In addition, to mitigate noise at the new layover location, we have changed the schedule so the first layover will be at approximately 7a.m. rather than at 5:45a.m. There are no afternoon or evening layovers at this location.

We hope these measures will help to make serving NW Thurman Street a safer and more pleasant experience for everyone. Thank you for your patience with this process.

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